Sea Prayer

Finished May 8

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini, illustrated by Dan Williams

This short book shows a father reassuring his son Marwan as they wait for a boat to take them to what they hope is a better life. It has memories of the past, of better times in their homeland, and of hope for the future.

It also shows a father speaking words of comfort to his son that he isn't entirely sure of himself. 

The memories of a times in nature, watching trees and animals and listening to everyday sounds, and of Homs, a bustling city with its mosque and souk and people going about their day. 

All of that is in the past, changed through the bombs that fell and forced them to flee.

The illustrations work so well here. They have a watercolour feel to them, with light colours of blues, greens, yellows, and reds in nature, and the more muted yet still colourful city scenes. When the book reaches the point where things change, with protests, sieges, bombs, and worse, the colours disappear. The pictures are shades of grey, with only occasional hints of colour, and as the scenes show people leaving for other places they shift to sepia. The sea at the end is a dark sea, greens and blues, and the people still without colour. 

This book was inspired by the death of young Alan Kurdi, and so many other refugees that died trying to reach safety. The author's proceeds of the book go to the UN Refugee Agency and the Khaled Hosseini Foundation, with goes to refugee relief efforts.

This is a moving book, best read slowly, taking in the words and pictures and sitting with them. 

The Book Collectors

Finished October 16

The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War by Delphine Minoui, translated by Lara Vergnaud

The author, Delphine Minoui, is a journalist who has covered the Middle East, and lives in Istanbul. She also directed a documentary on the same subject as this book. During her work, she heard about a group who had created a library from books they found in the rubble of their town, Daraya. Daraya is a town outside of Damascus which fell under a siege in 2012 and became cut off from the outside world for four years. 

The young men who found the first batch of books and began actively collecting them in one place, where they built shelving and provided studying, reading, and meeting space, had a collection of fifteen thousand books within a month of their start. The collection had range, from poetry to plays, history to science. 

First Minoui tracked down one of the library's founders, Ahmad Muaddamani, twenty-three, who was studying civil engineering before the war. He told her the story of the library, but also the story of this small community, its history of discourse and democracy, the effects of the siege, and the others who supported and used the library. Residents from children through seniors visited and borrowed material, and they even arranged Skype lectures from a variety of speakers. Other men that she spoke to were Omar Abu Anas, a soldier in the Free Syrian Army, who kept a small collection of books protected by sandbags at the front lines; Shadi Matar, who joined the media center of the town and documented the war through photographs; Hussam Ayash, who launched a small local magazine during the siege; Abu Malek Al-Shami, who painted graffiti and murals on the ruins to keep spirits up; Abu el-Ezz, another co-founder of the library; and Ustez, a slightly older man who served as a mentor for the others.

As Monoui tracks the ongoing siege, she also documents the types of attacks they endured, including barrel bombs, sarin gas, and napalm. 

With limited access to internet, most of the communication was through media such as Whats App, with reliance on short messages, and video. 

A book that brings this group of men to life and highlights the situation that they lived in during this difficult time. She also includes a list of the most popular books in the collection and ones mentioned in her conversations with the men. 

Dark at the Crossing

Finished November 20 
Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman, read by Vikas Adam

This story takes place over a short time period.
A young man, Haris Abadi, an Iraqi-American has come to Turkey to cross into Syria to help the rebels. Haris has a lot of baggage from his previous experience working as a translator for American troops in Iraq. His close relationship with one soldier in particular is one that he keeps coming back to in his head. As a translator, he didn't always agree with the methods used by the Americans, and sometimes felt he didn't belong anywhere. He already had his American citizenship before working as a translator and was trying to make a better life for his sister. Once he felt that she had moved on, he was at loose ends, and felt drawn back to this area of the world.
When he is robbed when trusting someone to help him across the border, he is taken in by another young man Amir, a Syrian working as a researcher. Amir is married to Daphne and came to Turkey when Daphne was badly hurt in an explosion in their home. Their marriage is troubled, and Daphne longs to return to look for what she has lost.
As the plans evolve to have Haris accompany Daphne into Syria, he begins to look harder at his own motives and what he wants to accomplish.
This is a difficult book, one where things aren't black and white. But it is thought-provoking.

The 8.55 to Baghdad

Finished April 17
The 8.55 to Baghdad by Andrew Eames

Andrew Eames is a travel journalist and he was in the ancient city of Aleppo in Syria when he discovered a side of Agatha Christie that he hadn't previously been aware of. As he learned more of her life in the Middle East, he decided  to retrace the 1928 trip she took on her own to Baghdad, and beyond, the trip that completely changed her life. It was on this trip she met Max, who became her second husband and led her to spend many winters in this part of the world as she accompanied him on his archeological digs.
Eames travels the route of the Orient Express, the Taurus Express and on, exploring not only Christie's life, but the history of the train routes, train stations, and of each of the places he goes through. Of course he also talks about the people he meets along the way, whether those travelling along with him, or those he interacted with when off the train visiting the locations along the route.
He begins this journey in Sunningdale, England, the wealthy community Agatha lived in with her first husband Archie. He arrived at Victoria Station in London and boarded the first stage of the VSOE (Venice Simplon Orient Express) which uses restored Pullman coaches and then switched to a bus for the trip across the Channel. Once across, he was once again in luxury, this time in restored Wagon-Lits coaches, which took him on to Venice.
Not spending much time in Venice, he took a regional express to Trieste, where he did take time to explore this port city with a very interesting history. From there he took the Drava to Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he took a sidetrip from Ljubljana to Lake Bohinj, where Christie vacationed in 1967 and talking to a journalist who interviewed her then. He then took the Mimara from Ljubljana to Zagreb, Croatia. There he visited the Archeological Museum, observed the people, and met with a local historian to better understand the complex history of the former Yugoslavia and its resultant nations. He then took a train on to Belgrade, where he again made time to learn more about the Balkan situation, even arranging a meeting with the Crown Prince.
Eames then crossed into Bulgaria, but felt a need to take a break from cities, so took a sidetrip to the Black Sea, exploring the route of the original Orient Express. Following the first World War, the route was changed to the south to avoid German-speaking countries. The original train route ended in Ruse, Bulgaria, where the tracks ended (to be completed six years later), took a local train to the coastal resort of Varna and switched to a sea voyage on to Constantinople across the Black Sea. Eames travelled to Ruse, where he explored the Railway Museum, to Varna, on to the Golden Sands resort on the Black Sea and then inland to Veliko Turnovo [which I have also visited] and then back to Sofia to catch the sleeper to Istanbul. In Istanbul, he managed to stay in Christie's usual room at the Pera Palas hotel and explored the city for a few days.
He then took a train on to Konya, stayed a few days, and then took the day train on to Adana.to join back up with the Taurus Express. This took him into Syria and on to Aleppo, where he again stayed in the Baron Hotel where Christie stayed when in town. He then continued on to Damascus on the sleeper train. From here following on Christie's 1928 route was only possible by joining a group tour by bus, which he did. This took him to Baghdad, but also on to the archeological sites of Samarra, Nimrud (where Christie spent many seasons), Nineveh (where Christie first worked together with her husband Max), and Ur (where the two met in 1929).
It was only a few short months later that the Iraq war started, so this story is also catches a unique moment in history for Iraq. The author takes time to try to find out what he can about the places he goes, talking to locals, trying to make connections, and showing the historical background. It is no surprise that this book won the British Guild of Travel Writers' Narrative Travel Book of the Year Award in 2004. It is a great, thought-provoking, informative read that also entertains.